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Mike Evans “Embarrassed” With Emotions

May 9th, 2014

Many players dream of the NFL from the moment they started tossing around a football as kids in the back yard. So when a player is drafted, it is understandable that they get misty-eyed.

For other players at the draft, they are the chosen few and understand just how gifted they are. And there are others from difficult backgrounds, that realize their lives have turned the corner and as long as they aren’t stupid, years of struggle and watching their parents work two or three jobs are over.

That was the case yesterday when Bucs receiver Mike Evans heard his name called by NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell, he immediately thought of his hardscrabble upbringing, his father dying when he was young, and his mother worked to the bone to try to put food on the table and provide for the family.

Evans broke down. He didn’t like that, especially on national TV seen by millions on the NFL Network, so he told the Tampa Bay pen and mic club this afternoon.

“You saw me get emotional and cry like a baby,” Evans said of crying. “I didn’t expect to do that. I realized my dreams coming true and it hit me. My dream is coming true. I got the call and it sunk in but not as much as when [Goodell] called my name. I was holding my daughter and I guess I had been holding [the emotions] all in.

“It kind of hit me. Kind of came out of nowhere. It is embarrassing to me. I try to be a tough guy. [It] is a great moment, realizing that I can take care of my family now and do what I love. “

Joe has a suspicion that if Evans makes it, the way he plays with emotion — Joe will never forget how Johnny Football once had to grab Evans and literally shake him after a flag to rattle sense into him so not to get thrown out of the game against Duke in the Chicken Bowl — that Bucs fans will fall in love with the guy.